Strange Superstitions and The Superstitious Among Us

[Spitfire]

Sorry, I don't know if superstition is the right word for it. But let me start, then I guesse you know what I am aming at.

Minutes before a very important meeting at the agency - it was a pitch for a new client - I discovered that allthough I was all dressed up with white shirt, tie etc. I had one blue and one black sock on my feet.
The meeting went well - we got the client. And from that day on I always wear two different socks in important meetings. One black and one blue.

After a meeting, that did not work out 100% I even started thinking about which foot the black sock was on the first time. The left or the right foot...
I have a system now.
Is it only me? (Please don't tell me YES!)

 

[IlsaLund]

Hand and Foot, Anyone?

I have a little superstition when I play cards against the rest of my card-shark family. While we play a lot of poker and betting games, once in a while we slow it down and play Hand and Foot -- it's a kind of Canasta.

Anyway, when I deal out the stacks of cards to pass to the person directly to my left and directly to my right, I switch them up... meaning I give the deck on my left to the person on my right and the deck on my right to the person on my left. Also, even though there are four decks to draw from throughout the game, I always draw from the same one. I won't dirty my aces, or my sevens.

I realized when I played with my Nana on Wednesday how peevish I am about it. Needless to say, I beat Nana's 84 year old rear-end in a very serious way, so maybe my neurotic card superstitions actually hold a little weight with the Hoyle Gods.

 

[drafttek]

I agree, never dirty your Aces

In any card game I wait until the dealing is done and everyone else picks up their cards before picking up my own.

I always wear my yellow deHavilland baseball cap when I go flying.

I have a lucky rock I keep in my car. I've had it for 22 years now. I may still get inan accident now and then but I've never been hurt.

I always say "Bread & Butter" when my wife and I walk on opposite sides of a pole. I saw it on an episode of "Popeye" once so it's gotta have validity.

 

[Riposte3]

When I'm on duty at the rescue squad I never, ever utter the words "It's quiet" or "It's a slow day." Whenever these words leave someone's mouth it usually results in a string of calls that cause us to miss the next meal, a serious and chaotic call, or a call that is total BS (i.e. calling 911 for a toothache.)

On the other hand, if we want to run a call, saying those words means nothing will happen. [huh]

Murphy is an evil, evil man.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Murphy is an evil, evil man.

But there are times when I think...Murphy was an optimist.

 

[Fletch]

I still knock wood (or my head if none is handy).

I still throw a pinch over my left shoulder whenever I spill salt.

I never cross eating utensils.

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

I never walk on three drains. A lot of other people I know also do this, but I have no idea where the superstition comes from!

 

[Mr. Lucky]

The Buffalo Bills. Really. My week, in my fevered and twisted brain, depends on how the Bills do on Sunday. And however they do for their last game of the season defines the coming year.










I know, I know...yes, I'm quite aware of it...I've had a rough few years.

 

[Panamabob]

I don't put handheld Yahtzee! down until I score 250 or better.

 

[Harp]

I can't sleep between 2-4am; will wake before dawn.
A souvenir from the Army.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

This is kind of silly and very superstitious, but if I don't want something to happen/come true, I won't say it out loud. Example, if I'm gonna fly somewhere I will not talk about plane accidents, for some reason I feel like if I say it out loud it's more likely to come true. Silly I know!

 

[Lady Day]

I knock on wood, but thats about it.

But I still think mail magically changes in the mail box until you open it and it becomes bills. I knew that check for a million was in there yesterday, darn it.

LD

 

[Elaina]

I'm uber superstitious. I won't own a white cat, don't sweep dirt out of door...gosh, you name it I do it. One thing I'm really particular over is salt. Got to throw it over both shoulders since I never can remember which one it's supposed to go over.

 

[Julius Xavier]

Mine verges on Howard Hughes Level...

When ever I eat fast food and have something wrapped in paper... cheeseburger, taco, whatever I have this weird desire to fold said paper into the smallest most perfect square... everytime. Here is another... I'm a smoker and when ever I open a new pack of cigarettes I take the plastic from the top of the pack and fold it into a square and then take the foil that covers the actual cigarettes and cover the plastic by folding it into a perfect square.


And on that note...

I need to see the blueprints.... show me the BLUEprints... SHOW me the blueprints... show ME the blueprints... show me THE blueprints... show me the bluePRINTS...


That's a quote from The Avaitor but it's how I feel when people watch me do those things... have to get it just right... Obsessive Compolsive? I would think so.




-JX

 

[Lady Day]

I'm uber superstitious. I won't own a white cat, don't sweep dirt out of door...gosh, you name it I do it. One thing I'm really particular over is salt. Got to throw it over both shoulders since I never can remember which one it's supposed to go over.

If you cant remember just do everything over the right. The left side of the body is considered evil by many standards of superstition. I should know, Im left handed. I had a man tell me once never trust a left handed woman, they are conniving. lol

LD

 

[Elaina]

I'm left handed too, and I knew that, but I once read that if you toss it over ther left shoulder it wards off evil and the right one wards off company (or something). Heck I don't remember if it was salt, but I want to cover my bases just in case.

 

[Fletch]

I won't own a white cat

White kitty = bad luck? Never knew that. Would a white and a black one cancel each other out?

 

[GOK]

I'm left handed too, and I knew that, but I once read that if you toss it over ther left shoulder it wards off evil and the right one wards off company (or something). Heck I don't remember if it was salt, but I want to cover my bases just in case.

That's three of us evil conniving women here then! I throw salt over my left shoulder too. Apparently it is supposed to hit the devil in the eye....I don't of course believe in the devil, so why do I do this?

Like your thinking, Elaina! lol

 

[Elaina]

White kitty = bad luck? Never knew that. Would a white and a black one cancel each other out?

Actually, America did it back wards from everyone else. Black cats are good luck, but only if they choose you and not vice versa (my evil cat of doom is one such a monster.) White cats and black cats would just kill the luck, not just cancel each other out. Now if it turned out that I had a white cat move in, I wouldn't get rid of it, or hurt it, I just wouldn't be too happy about it. Pure white cats are as rare as pure black ones, although I manage to keep getting these all black cats that adopt me. (The peach terror kitten is orange with a dirty streak (grey) along her back. I didn't choose her either, my son managed to pick her out. I wanted the grey one.)

Something I picked up when I did the whole gypsy thing after I found out my family was Black Dutch gypsies was the cat thing. Gave me an excuse for liking black cats, which is something I always wanted to get given the choice. I also picked up other weird and strange habits over the years (like cutting my hair: I NEVER, NEVER, NEVER do it in the wane of the moon, the one time I did I started to go bald, even if it was coincidental to my pregnancy at the time); I have potpourri standing sentry at the entrance to my house (it's not, but no one ever figures it out), entrance to the house on Saturdays anytime we leave requires a genuflect and a cross to reenter...really a number of strange and weird superstitions running amok over here. I don't live by them, but I guess I must if I have to say I do these things.

The only thing that I do that no one else I know does is with my treadle. Before I can sew on it, I pet it and say "Sweet Mike, Pretty Mike." If I don't it's going to give me all kinds of hell. I usually thank him too when I'm done. (Yes, I named my machine. We don't call it the treadle. I tell my son "Why are you getting into Mike?" and my husband "Going to go spend time with Mike". But it works: Mike purrs beautifully and sews like a dream.)

For the record: I'm the only one in my family that's superstitious. Even my son, who's seen this from his birth isn't. He goes along with it, but then he also usually says "Oh ignore my mom, she's just weird like that".

 

[DocBob345]

I do pretty much all of them, myself. The pinch of salt over the shoulder, I seldom step on a crack when walking (how severe is that?), I'm one of the few who will even stop a car, turn around and find an alternate route when I see a black cat cross the street ahead of me. This latter has gotten a stern word from my wife, as we were late for an appointment on one occasion.

My grandmother also instilled in me that it's bad luck (if not also bad form) to place shoes on a table.

Best,
Robert